Sürdürülebilir Yeşil Kampüs Koleksiyonu / Sustainable Green Campus Collection
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11147/7755
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Doctoral Thesis Children's Perceptions of Their Urban Outdoor Experiences: the Case of Izmir(Izmir Institute of Technology, 2019) Dikmen Güleryüz, Oylum; Doğan, Fehmi; Kasalı, AltuğResearch in children’s outdoor experiences is a rapidly growing field of investigation together with the increasing interest in the problems associated with rapid urbanization. Although there are studies that document positive and negative consequences of the built environment on children, children’s use of urban environments need to be investigated further in cities with fast urbanization rate where children are at a disadvantage especially given the fact that technology. The aim of this thesis is to understand through the eyes of children the intercorrelated relationship between physical characters of urban environments and the way outdoor environments are used. Therefore, a multi-site field study is conducted in five different urban zones with different physical and demographical characteristics (central, gated community, squatter settlement, mass housing and point-block settlement) in İzmir, Turkey which has high rates of urbanization and population growth. The study follows a mixed-method approach. The participants included 370 fourth grade primary school children and 258 parents. Even though the living environments selected for this dissertation vary in terms of physical qualities and demographic characteristics, 77% of children reported to prefer spend their free time outdoors. However, the study provides evidence to link children’s preferences regarding place and duration of use, and the way they use outdoor environments vary among the urban zones studied. The findings of the dissertation is linked to the growing literature on the subject with the aim to contribute to the improvement of children’s environments in cities, and the related policy-making efforts worldwide.Article Citation - WoS: 3Citation - Scopus: 8Way-Finding Strategies of Blind Persons in Urban Scale(John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2017) Kan Kılıç, Didem; Doğan, FehmiThe aim of this study was to determine whether urban environments with different prominent sensory inputs have an impact on the way-finding strategies of blind people and to identify these impacts, where applicable. We specifically investigated how blind people use their senses to compensate for the lack of visual information and how the priority of senses changes according to the urban context. The participants of the study consisted of nine congenitally blind individuals and the study took place in two urban settings: a dense urban district, Kemeralti district in İzmir; and an urban park, the İzmir Fair Park. During the learning phase, a first trial along the selected routes was conducted for each participant individually along with one of the researchers. In the test phase, the participants were requested to re-walk the route and verbally report the environmental cues they attended to. The participants’ verbal reports were recorded and transcripts of the recordings were coded according to the environmental sensory inputs. In addition, the short-term memory of each participant was also evaluated. The results show that the characteristics of the urban environment seem to have an impact on way-finding strategies of blind individuals. It was found that the sound of the city and the echo from the environment are the most important factors for blind participants in the dense urban environment. Environmental boundaries provided echoes and gave a sense of enclosure that helped them orient themselves, whereas, in the park environment, the sense of enclosure was not enhanced due to a lack of boundaries in the environment.Doctoral Thesis Non-Visual Aspects of Spatial Knowledge: Wayfinding Behavior of Visually Impaired People in Complex Urban Environments(İzmir Institute of Technology, 2016) Kan Kılıç, Didem; Doğan, FehmiEverybody perceive space multi-dimensionally however blind people are more conscientious of the non-visual constituents of space. Although there is an extensive amount of research on mobility, perception, and way-finding of blind people, there has been fewer work to show which specific aspects of built environment they focus on and they use as cues in the way they relate to their urban environment. Therefore, this study focuses on the senses of blind individuals during their way-finding process in urban contexts. Two case studies in İzmir, Turkey and Lisbon, Portugal were conducted in large-scale urban contexts. The case study in İzmir highlights the holistic and multi-dimensional perception of space by asking 9 congenitally blind participants to mark those places that they find particularly important in Kemeralti and İzmir Fair Park by verbally describing the features in the environment they attend to. It was found that auditory information was the most used environmental cues and a feeling of enclosure is the most important environmental feature during way-finding. The second case study in Lisbon was conducted with 5 congenitally blind participants to understand the strategies of congenitally blind participants with a focus on whether sounds from the environment are of primary importance for blind individuals. The most important finding is that increased familiarity with the environment, the better way-finding strategies blind individuals have. This study highlights multi-dimensional sensory experience of urban environments and non-visual aspects of spatial perception.Article Citation - WoS: 12Citation - Scopus: 12Fifth-, Sixth-, and Seventh- Grade Students' Use of Non-Classroom Spaces During Recess: the Case of Three Private Schools in Izmir, Turkey(Academic Press Inc., 2010) Kasalı, Altuğ; Doğan, FehmiThis study investigates fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students' place preferences between indoor and outdoor non-classroom spaces during recess and their activity patterns in these spaces in three private elementary schools. The study explores whether differences in the variety and organization of the spaces of school facilities have an impact on the place preferences of students and whether students are aware of the reasons for their preferences. Students' place preferences and their activities were determined with field observations and a 30-item questionnaire with Yes/No and open-ended questions. A total of 173 students (n = 51 School 1; n = 70 School 2; and n = 52 School 3) participated in the questionnaire. The Chi-Square test, a non-parametric statistical analysis test, was used to analyze the students' answers to the questionnaire. The results indicate that students prefer places which offer variety and which are large enough to avoid congestion and that, in general, students are aware of the spatial features of their environments and make choices accordingly. When students are given a choice of outdoors or indoors, they tend to choose according to which is more conducive to their activities. If both outdoor and indoor spaces are conducive, students tend to use both. If neither is conducive to their activities, students either alter their behavior patterns, for example, developing a preference for stationary activities or staying inside the classroom, or they convert available spaces to accommodate their activities. It is concluded that students are good sources of information in the design and planning of the environments they occupy. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.Master Thesis An Inquiry Into the Personalization of Space in the Case of Turkish-German Immigrants(Izmir Institute of Technology, 2015) Çıracı Yücel, Naciye; Doğan, FehmiHome is a special place we attach personal importance. The main focus of this study is the different and complementary meanings of “homes” that Turkish migrant families in Germany construct. One immigrant family is chosen as a case to investigate the relationship between person and place, the spatial practices at home and spatial characteristics of homes. The family migrated from Turkey to Germany in the early 1970s for economic reasons. The family still lives in Frankfurt, Germany, and they just retired. After retirement, they decided to buy a home in their homeland in Ankara and a summerhouse in Kuşadası, a seaside town close to Izmir. It was expected that the family had constructed different daily experience and homely environments in these homes. The study investigates the key points of the personalization of place and place attachment through observation and interviews. The study has three specific foci. First, family members are interviewed to investigate the individual and collective meanings of home that contribute to their sense of identity. Second, the physical and social dimensions of place and the context within which they are located were observed to discuss the role of physical environment in self-realization and how individuals construct such physical environments. Third, everyday life experiences of the family were inquired.